Family members of the victims of the 2008 Malegaon blast, challenging the decision of the special NIA court, approached the Bombay High Court in which all the accused, including Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, were acquitted. On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and 101 others were injured in the blast near a mosque in Malegaon city of Nashik district of Maharashtra. The Bombay High Court hearing the case on September 15, 2025, Justice A.S. Gadkari and Justice R.R. The Bhosle’s bench is listed before the bench.
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The appeal filed by six family members of the deceased victims claimed that the special court’s verdict was flawed and a demand to overturn the decision to acquit. He argues that the investigation was faulty and the prosecution case weakened by the NIA’s conduct of investigation. The conclusion of the special court that there was no concrete evidence for conviction, disputed by the families of the victims, they argue that cases of conspiracy often depend on circumstantial evidence. Family members also expressed concern about the Special Public Prosecutor of the NIA and alleged that there was pressure against the accused to a slow hearing of the case.
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The appeal alleged that the investigation led to an agreement and important evidence was ignored or misbehaved with them. In his appeal, the families of the six dead have requested the Code to issue notices to all the defendants, including the acquitted accused. The prosecution, the National Investigation Agency, has not yet filed an appeal in the case. The 2008 Malegaon blast case was transferred to the NIA from the Maharashtra Anti -Terrorism Squad (ATS) in 2011. After 17 years of long wait and investigation of hundreds of witnesses, the NIA’s special court acquitted all seven accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act and all other allegations.